Ziqi Cheng
Professional Skills& Additional content
Public exhibitions & On the search for creative approaches
Public Exhibitions
As a student of Fine Art Drawing at Camberwell College of Arts during Unit 2, I participated in two exhibitions: Forces of the Small: Project for an Artwork Compacted and Condensed and the Bargehouse exhibition. I benefited greatly from both exhibitions, and it was the first time I had formally shown my work to the public. Both shows provided me with the opportunity to not only display my work in public but also to learn about how other artists organise their exhibitions.
Communicating with other exhibitors, curators, and tutors about the positioning and installation of my work during this time has helped me become more familiar with the process of setting up an exhibition, which will also benefit me in the future as I participate in more artistic practises. The group critical discussion with the students allowed me to meet many students from other pathways, listen to them describe their work and comprehend their thoughts, as well as extend my thinking and learn how to look at a piece of art.
Filet Gallery, 2023
On the search for creative approaches:
In order to learn more about creative processes, I attended many workshops, artist talks, gallery visits and fieldwork. Thus, I learned many methods of printing, the most interesting of which I discovered was etching. I spent two weeks in the etching studio, becoming acquainted with the process and experimenting with various drawing approaches to create a piece I was delighted with. I also learned how to make gelatin prints by modifying images and printing them by hand onto paper, and after eight failed attempts, I was able to construct my final piece and became acquainted with the amount of ink necessary for each print.
In addition, I've always been interested in various ancient drawing methods, so I learned the unique local method of making sugar paintings in Morocco with painters from indigenous villages. They use saffron, sugar, and tea to make paintings on paper, which initially looks like ordinary white paper, but when the paper is put on fire, the paintings on the paper will be revealed. This is such an interesting experimental process. In the future, I hope to have more opportunities to meet artists from many professions and obtain new creative ideas.
The process of making gelatin prints, 2023
Photographed in Morocco, 2023